02 November 2010

Just two months ago I stepped on the Hayes Valley Farm for the first time with excitement and curiosity of an amazing urban agriculture haven just blocks from my home. The farm was exactly what I was looking for, a place to get my hands dirty and step outside the stress of the city. Who would have thought just two months later I would take part in community outreach, organizing over 350 garden actions and coordinating volunteers as part of the 350 garden actions on 10.10.10. During the planning I had the opportunity to meet an amazing group of dedicated individuals with the same hopes to create a better future through installing gardens to fight global climate change.

The day of the event, I was lucky enough to be stationed at the front gate where I was able to see the farm come to life before my eyes. Resource sharing, garden workshops, seed swapping, kids activities, a potluck, live entertainment and music all taking place seamlessly. None of this could have happened with out the astonishing outpouring of support from the hundreds of volunteers. Volunteers filled vehicles with compost for garden actions, helped to construct gardens throughout the city, help kids create intention flags, make screenprinted shirts and set up a concert for the evening.

10.10.10 - One day in three minutes

Video by Ilyse Magy - http://ilyseirismagy.com

 

Help us do this next year! Click here and support Hayes Valley Farm Kickstarter campaign today!

We put out a callout for large-scale garden projects. I was one of the neighborhood organizers, and my garden action consisted of a 700 sq. ft. sheet-mulching project in the Mission. There was no amount of manure that was too much to shovel. The volunteers’ dedication held strong throughout the day to complete layers upon layers of manure on top of cardboard on top of the earth, sequestering carbon and fulfilling the global call to lower our carbon emissions, by actually returning carbon to the ground.

10.10.10 was undoubtedly a day of fighting global climate change just as it was a day of building local community empowerment. The farm was alive and the people in the community were witnessing the magic. As pedestrians walked by throughout the day, some stopped, some participated and some just asked, ‘so does this happen every Sunday?’  Hearing this over and over made me stop and think, what can be done to make this a reoccurring reality, what’s stopping us? 10.10.10 showed us that what people really need and want is a place they can come to, a place they can learn and interact with others while doing something good, and HVF provides just that.

10.10.10 was in a way a “Kick Starter” event. It was an event that allowed us to see the full potential and power that Hayes Valley Farm can have when we receive overwhelming community support. Lets continue to build the momentum from 10.10.10 and create resiliency from within our community, by using education to teach ourselves we can grow our own food, we can nourish our children and we can share our surplus with strangers.

I feel grateful for the chance to be a part of the 10.10.10 experience at Hayes Valley Farm. Please share your 10.10.10 stories, or any farm story you may have, from learning what you can do with fava beans to a meaningful interaction with someone new at the farm. Most of all we hope you will share your stories with friends, family and neighbors, and encourage them to pledge to our Kickstarter Campaign, so that we can keep the farm up and running in 2011.

If you can share this link through your network, it will help strengthen our community network here in San Francisco, and touch many, many lives. Lookin forward to 11.11.11! - Donation Link: http://bit.ly/hvf-ks2